ACC All Access: Bud Foster talks about why Marshall is best up-tempo offense Virginia Tech will have faced

By Norm Wood

Bud Foster has a handle on what all the fuss is about regarding en vogue up-tempo style of offenses. He saw a little of it from Alabama and Western Carolina, and a lot of it from East Carolina.

Now, he’s about to lead his Tech defense Saturday against a Marshall offense that makes leaving defenses gasping for breath its top priority. On Tuesday, Tech coach Frank Beamer said he thought Marshall (2-1) was better overall at what it tries to get accomplished than ECU. Foster agrees.

“You had some guys being spectators (against ECU), and you can’t do that,” said Foster, whose unit is second in the nation in both total defense (190.7 yards per game) and passing defense (106.3 yards per game). “This (Marshall) group to me is similar in a lot of ways to what we just saw, but a little more explosive.

“They’re going to be faster than East Carolina. (Marshall will) run some plays back-to-back.”

Last season, Marshall led the nation in both average plays from scrimmage (90.6) per game and number of plays from scrimmage per game that went for 10 or more yards (20.25). This season, Marshall is only slightly behind that pace of play (third in the nation with 247 plays from scrimmage; 82.3 per game), and it’s averaging more plays of 10 yards or more (21.67 per game; leading the nation with 65 total).

After studying film, Foster sees more potential for deep passes from Marshall than he saw from short pass-oriented ECU. He said Tech has worked in the nickel all week to prepare for Marshall’s passing offense, which is 21st in the nation (312.7 yards per game) and incorporates a lot of h-back participation.

He said he thinks Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato has more speed than ECU quarterback Shane Carden, and Marshall’s wide receivers are a little quicker than ECU’s receivers. Foster also believes Marshall’s offensive line is more physical than ECU’s line, and added Marshall’s line does more pulling.

Cato, a 6-foot-0, 188-pound junior, has gotten Foster’s attention for a lot of reasons. Cato is a more polished quarterback than the one Tech faced in 2011 in Huntington, W.Va., when Tech defeated Marshall 30-10.

Tech sacked Cato five times in that game. J.R. Collins had 2 1/2 sacks in the game, while Bethel High graduate James Gayle had 1 1/2 sacks. Both Collins and Gayle are now senior starting defensive ends.

In 12 games last season, Cato led the nation in passing yards per game (350.1) and completions per game (33.83). He completed 69.5 percent of his passes for 37 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. This season, he’s completed 63.6 percent of his passes for 849 yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions.

“He had ability, I thought, as a freshman,” Foster said. “He was just inexperienced. That’s where he’s gained it right now…The game has slowed down for him. He knows where he’s going now. He’s getting rid of the ball quicker.”

Foster also noticed Cato’s comments in a story this week in the Roanoke Times. Cato said:

“They’re a great defense. We’re a great team and we’re a great offense. May the best man win.

“Me as a quarterback and us a team, we show no fear to nobody.”

Though most Tech coaches fall in line with many coaches in the business who say they don’t pay attention to media reports, Cato’s comments didn’t slip past Foster.

“I think I saw in the paper where he feels good about himself and their team,” Foster said. “They’re expecting to come in here and play well and win. Hopefully, our kids are going to respond to that challenge. He said, ‘Let the best man win.’ I hope they respect our program. You’ve got to go earn your respect. We’ve got to go do that.

“I think they feel good about themselves offensively, and they should with the numbers and things that they put up on the board. I think they have a confidence or a swag, whatever you want to use that term – I think they have that. From their end of it, I’m sure that’s a feel-good thing.”

The biggest difference in Marshall’s offense compared to what Tech saw against ECU? Marshall can run the ball.

Running backs Steward Butler (94 yards per game), Essray Taliaferro (53 yards per game) and Kevin Grooms (43 yards per game) are providing the bulk of Marshall’s average of 214.7 rushing yards per game (41st in the nation).

By comparison, ECU is posting just 63.3 rushing yards per game (120th in nation). As usual, Foster’s primary goal is to stop the run first against Marshall, which ran for just six yards in its loss two years ago to Tech.

“Where they can’t have success running the ball, that allows our front guys to pin their ears back and we can play more anticipative football than reactive,” Foster said. “That happened when we played them up (at Marshall) two years ago. They tried to run it, but they couldn’t. We took that away and we’ve got to do the same thing.”

Foster and Tech offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler will both be reunited this weekend with old friends on Marshall’s coaching staff.

Loeffler will square off against Marshall defensive coordinator Chuck Heater. Both Loeffler and Heater are Michigan grads (Loeffler in 1998, Heater in ’75), and they were assistant coaches on the same staff together at Florida in 2009 and ’10.

Foster will see Marshall defensive tackles coach J.C. Price, a former Tech defensive tackle from ’91-95 and a former graduate assistant at Tech. Foster, who has coached at Tech since ’87, has fond memories of Price’s career at Tech, even if Price didn’t have the greatest start in Blacksburg.

Foster said he remembers the first time he tested Price in the weight room. When describing the size (or lack thereof) of Price’s arms in those days, Foster formed a circle with his hand that roughly resembled the circumference of a Wiffle ball bat. Foster recalls Price was sporting a beard that didn’t exactly project a youthful glow.

“He looked like he was about 35 years old,” Foster said.

“I don’t know if he could bench 160, believe it or not. You could tell him that, and he’d probably be busting my chops, but that’s about the truth. He’ll tell you maybe it was about 225, but I’m calling [expletive] on him.

“He got better. He got motivated and got a lot better. He had to, because we had some good players around him, so peer pressure and that stuff was big. He really became a leader for us and just a playmaker, an athletic kid inside…a solid end, but a dynamic defensive tackle.

“He’d be the first one to tell you his practice probably wasn’t his strength, but at the same time as he matured, he understood the importance of it and I think his practice habits were better as he got older. I think also, too, he realizes as a coach sometimes the only you’re going to achieve is you’ve got to work at it. I hope that’s something he got from this place when it’s all said and done.”

Price, who graduated from Tech in ’98, is in his second season on Marshall’s staff. He was an assistant coach for eight seasons at James Madison prior to going to Huntington.

Marshall has an off week on the schedule after the Tech game, so Foster said Price wanted to have a beer after Saturday’s game, but Tech has no time to rest with next Thursday’s ACC opener at Georgia Tech looming.

“I said, ‘I’m grading the film. I’m working. We don’t get a day off,’” Foster said.

“He’s a guy that down the road, say if (defensive line coach) Charley (Wiles) left or somebody like that, I’d look strongly to hire (Price). I think very highly of him. He did great job (at Tech) as a graduate assistant for us and he’s done a good job wherever he’s been since he’s left.”

With the Georgia Tech game right around the corner, Foster said Virginia Tech’s coaching staff has already broken down the Yellow Jackets’ schemes, but there hasn’t been extensive game prep to this point. He said Virginia Tech has spent a little time in practice the last two Sundays trying to get the scout team up to speed on Georgia Tech’s offense.

Foster noticed a couple new formations from Georgia Tech’s offense – a little more use of the pistol and a diamond look in the backfield while running the option – that will require extra attention leading into the game. Virginia Tech’s coaching staff will spend Sunday game-planning for Georgia Tech, while the Hokies’ players will get the day off.

Virginia Tech already knows it won’t have cornerback Antone Exum back for the Georgia Tech game, but he’s been working in practice this week with the second team defense.

“He just needs to get his timing back and play with a bend in his knees and see how that knee will hold up in those situations,” Foster said.

By the end of the weekend, Virginia Tech will have received a crash course in up-tempo offenses – something Foster thinks will only help once ACC play begins.

“Each tempo has been a little faster,” said Foster of Virginia Tech’s opponents thus far. “I think this one [from Marshall] is going to be the fastest yet. Obviously, we’ve got Georgia Tech and then we’ve got North Carolina after that, and (UNC is) going to be in that same tempo again. Not that this is the preseason in any stretch or form, but it prepares us hopefully for each week down the road.”